What is the value of JAVA_HOME for CentOS?

Question

I have install java through yum on CentOS, however another java programme needs to know what the JAVA_HOME environmental variable is. I know all about setting environmental variables, but what do I set it to? java is installed in /usr/bin/java, it can't be there!

Answer 1

Actually I found it,

it's /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0-openjdk.x86_64/. I found out what it was by doing update-alternatives --display java and it showed me the directory /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0-openjdk.x86_64/bin/java

Answer 2

I'm not quite sure but if you install the normal RPMS the JAVA_HOME value can also be set to this:

/usr/java/default/

EDIT: I just checked on my home system. I have created this file:

/etc/profile.d/java.sh

That contains:

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/default/

and I'm using the official version from Sun: jdk-1.6.0_12-fcs

[EDIT] I documented my settings here.

Answer 3

Thats weird, the whole point of having a JAVE_HOME environmental variable is so you don't have to specify the path to each program, it can get this path by looking for this variable.

Either way, the correct way to find the environmental variable for JAVA_HOME is to use echo:

[root@host ~]# echo $JAVA_HOME
/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_09

Running this command will display the path no matter what version you are running, from command line.

Answer 4

You want to set JAVA_HOME to be the root location of the JDK or JRE, for example:

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.3

If the JDK (Development kit) is installed, ypu probably want it to point to that, else use the JRE path (Java Runtime Environment). Then, you might want to set your $PATH environment variable to include the bin directory as well:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/java/jdk1.3/bin

If you are using tomcat, you might also need to set CATALINA_HOME for the tomcat user.

export CATALINA_HOME=/path/to/tomcat

To set this for the system you want to edit your /etc/profile or add a .sh file in /etc/profile.d folder. For a particular user you can put it in the users ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile files.